reptile

See also: Reptile, réptile, and rep-tile

English

Etymology

Middle English reptil, from Old French reptile, from Late Latin rēptile, neuter of reptilis (“creeping”), from Latin rēpō (“to creep”), from Proto-Indo-European *rep- (“to creep, slink”) (Pokorny; Watkins, 1969).

Picture dictionary

alligator

crocodile

chameleon

dinosaur

lizard

snake

turtle

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɪpˈtaɪl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛp.taɪl/
• Rhymes: -aɪl

Noun

reptile (plural reptiles)

1. A cold-blooded vertebrate of the class Reptilia.
2. (figuratively) A mean or grovelling person.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292:

     This work may, indeed, be considered as a great creation of our own; and for a little reptile of a critic to presume to find fault with any of its parts, without knowing the manner in which the whole is connected, and before he comes to the final catastrophe, is a most presumptuous absurdity.

   • Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers

     "That reptile," whispered Pott, catching Mr. Pickwick by the arm, and pointing towards the stranger. "That reptile — Slurk, of the Independent!"

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:reptile

Related terms

• mammal-like reptile
• Reptilia
• reptilian
• reptilianness
• reptiliology
• reptiliologist
• reptiliologists [1]

Translations

a cold-blooded vertebrate

• Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
• Afrikaans: reptiel (af)
• Albanian: rrëshqanor (sq)
• Arabic: زَحَّافَة‎‎ f (zaḥḥāfa)
• Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: սողուն (hy) (sołun), զեռուն (hy) (zeṙun)
• Asturian: reptil
• Avar: please add this translation if you can
• Azerbaijani: sürünən (pl: sürünənlər)
• Bashkir: please add this translation if you can
• Basque: narrasti
• Belarusian: рэпты́лія f (reptýlija), паўзу́н (be) m (paŭzún)
• Bengali: সরীসৃপ (sôrisrip)
• Bishnupriya Manipuri: please add this translation if you can
• Breton: stlejvil
• Bulgarian: влечу́го (bg) n (vlečúgo)
• Burmese: တွားသွားကောင် (my) (twa:swa:kaung)
• Catalan: rèptil m
• Chechen: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 爬蟲類, 爬虫类 (paa⁴ cung⁴ leoi⁶)

  Mandarin: 爬行類 (zh), 爬行类 (zh) (páxínglèi), 爬蟲類 (zh), 爬虫类 (zh) (páchónglèi)

  Min Nan: 爬蟲, 爬虫 (pâ-thiông)

• Corsican: please add this translation if you can
• Crimean Tatar: sürüngen
• Czech: plaz (cs) m
• Danish: krybdyr (da) n, reptil n
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: reptiel (nl) n
• Esperanto: reptilio
• Estonian: roomajad
• Faroese: skriðdýr, skriðdjór n
• Finnish: matelija (fi)
• French: reptile (fr) m
• Friulian: please add this translation if you can
• Galician: réptil
• Georgian: ქვეწარმავალი (kvec̣armavali)
• German: Kriechtier (de) n, Reptil (de) n, Wurm (de) m (poetic)
• Greek: ερπετό (el) (erpetó)

  Ancient: ἑρπετόν n (herpetón)

• Hawaiian: moʻo
• Hebrew: זוֹחֵל‎‎ m (zoħél)
• Hindi: सर्पणशील (sarpaṇśīl), सरीसृप (hi) (sarīsŕp)
• Hungarian: hüllő (hu)
• Icelandic: skriðdýr (is) n
• Ido: reptero (io)
• Indonesian: reptil (id)
• Interlingua: reptile
• Interlingue: reptile
• Irish: reiptíl f
• Italian: reptilia f, rettile (it) m
• Japanese: 爬虫 (はちゅう, hachū), 爬虫類 (ja) (はちゅうるい, hachūrui)
• Javanese: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: бауырымен жорғалаушылар (bawırımen jorğalawşılar), рептилия (reptïlïya)
• Khmer: ល្មូន (lmoon), ឧរង្គសត្វ (u rong sat)
• Korean: 파충류 (ko) (pachungnyu) (爬蟲類 (ko)), 파충 (pachung) (爬蟲 (ko))
• Kurdish: please add this translation if you can
• Kyrgyz: рептилия (reptiliya)

• Lao: ເລືອຄານ (lư̄a khān)
• Latin: reptilia (la)
• Latvian: rāpuļi
• Limburgish: reptiele
• Lithuanian: roplys m
• Low German:

  German Low German: Krüüpdeer, Kruupdeer

• Luxembourgish: Reptil n
• Macedonian: влекач m (vlekač)
• Malay: reptilia, binatang reptilia, haiwan reptilia
• Malayalam: ഉരഗം (ml) (uragaṃ)
• Maltese: please add this translation if you can
• Marathi: सर्प्ट्णारा प्रािण (sarpṭṇārā prāiṇ)
• Mongolian: хэвлээр явагч (hevleer javagč)
• Navajo: naaldlooshii dadichʼízhii
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: krypdyr (no) n, reptil (no) n

  Nynorsk: krypdyr n, reptil n

• Novial: reptere
• Occitan: reptilia
• Ossetian: хилӕгой (xilægoj)
• Persian: خزنده‎‎ (fa) (xazande)
• Polish: gad (pl) m
• Portuguese: réptil (pt) m
• Quechua: suchuq
• Romanian: reptilă (ro)
• Romansch: reptil m
• Russian: пресмыка́ющееся (ru) n (presmykájuščejesja), репти́лия (ru) f (reptílija), гад (ru) m (gad) (colloquial: includes reptiles, amphibians, molluscs, etc.)
• Samogitian: ruoplē
• Sanskrit: सरीसृप (sa) (sarīsṛpa)
• Scottish Gaelic: snàigean m, pèist f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: гмаз m, гмизавац m, рептил m

  Roman: gmaz (sh) m, gmizavac (sh) m, reptil m

• Sicilian: rettili (scn) m
• Slovak: plaz m
• Slovene: plazílec (sl) m
• Spanish: reptil (es) m
• Sundanese: réptil
• Swahili: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: kräldjur (sv) n, reptil (sv) c
• Tagalog: bayabag
• Tajik: рептилия (reptiliya)
• Tamil: ஊர்வன (ta) (ūrvaṉa)
• Telugu: సరీసృపం (te) (sarīsr̥paṃ)
• Thai: สัตว์เลื้อยคลาน (sàt léuay klaan)
• Turkish: sürüngen (tr)
• Turkmen: süýreniji
• Tuvan: соястаарлар (soyastaarlar)
• Ukrainian: плазу́н m (plazún), репти́лія f (reptýlija)
• Upper Sorbian: łažaki
• Uzbek: reptiliya
• Vietnamese: động vật bò sát, loài bò sát (vi)
• Volapük: räptul (vo)
• Welsh: ymlusgiad (cy)
• West Frisian: reptyl
• Yiddish: רעפּטיליע‎‎ f (reptilye), שרץ‎‎ m (sherets)
• Zazaki: xuzande

Adjective

reptile (not comparable)

1. Creeping; moving on the belly, or by means of small and short legs.
2. Grovelling; low; vulgar.

   a reptile race or crew; reptile vices

   • Burke

     There is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution, but of fear.

   • Coleridge

     And dislodge their reptile souls / From the bodies and forms of men.

Synonyms

• (creeping, crawling): reptilious, creeping, crawling; reptitious (obsolete)
• (contemptible): See Thesaurus:despicable

See also

• herpetology
• Category:en:Reptiles for a list of reptiles in English
• reptile on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Peltier, peitrel, perlite

---

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rēptilis.

Noun

reptile m (plural reptiles)

1. reptile

Derived terms

• reptilien

Further reading

• “reptile” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

---

Latin

Adjective

rēptile

1. neuter nominative singular of rēptilis
2. neuter accusative singular of rēptilis
3. neuter vocative singular of rēptilis